FOXBOROUGH, Mass.—Flashbacks came in waves, growing more real by the second as Eli Manning kept weaving precise passes and smartly, calmly leading the New York Giants down the field.

Patriots fans had witnessed something like this before. Only that noxious vision (to them) occurred on a far bigger stage, for the grandest of prizes. That one came four seasons ago when the Giants stunningly stomped on New England’s perfect season and won Super Bowl XLII in the game’s dying minutes.

It’s an image in these parts that lingers, and Manning might as well have blackened in the target on his back when he stated over the summer that sure, he belonged right up there with the NFL’s other choice quarterbacks.

So there were derisive signs dotting the Gillette Stadium stands on Sunday as the two teams met for the first time since that remarkable evening in Glendale, Ariz., and now and then, even as Manning worked his déjà vu voodoo, a player in blue would turn around and take note.

“Eli’s Not An Elite Quarterback,” read one sign, and there were plenty others less kind.

“I saw some of that. I think they’re pish-posh,” said Giants tight end Jake Ballard, not long after Manning had—again—led Big Blue on a dramatic, time-evaporating drive, this one ending on a 1-yard pass to Ballard with 15 seconds left to beat the Patriots, 24-20.

Brandon Jacobs was slightly less delicate. “These people should know. He’s beat them twice,” said the N.Y. running back, one of the many Giants who stepped up big after three offensive starters were too injured to make the trip to New England.

The Giants were so delirious they had pulled off another ridiculous comeback, they briefly hoisted coach Tom Coughlin atop Jacobs’ shoulders in the postgame locker room. Seriously.

“I was thinking they were going to drop me on my head, is what I was thinking, “ Coughlin said.

It was the Patriots’ second straight loss, an anomaly for a team used to celebrating on home turf. Tom Brady did all he could to make sure the fans could go home smiling, but once again the clock was against him. With a little more than three minutes remaining, he pushed the Pats down the field on an 64-yard vintage drive that culminated with a 14-yard TD pass to Rob Gronkowski to put New England ahead, 20-17.

But even the great Brady can’t beat time.

“I’d rather be down by three with 1:30 (left) than be up by four with 1:30 with Tom Brady on the field,” Manning said.

Nobody is foolish enough to suggest the importance of this game matched the one from four seasons ago, though Manning did agree there were some similarities to that Giants’ 17-14 Super Bowl victory. But instead of Plaxico Burress leaping high into the night to snare the winning pass from Manning, there was the fresh-faced Ballard, and instead of David Tyree’s Velcro helmet there was Ballard again, snagging a pass in traffic down the middle.

“I think anytime you come into this stadium against the Patriots and get a win, it’s a big win,” Manning said.

He was typically aw-shucks modest, saying he’s “just trying to play to the best of my ability,” but when pressed about the mocking signs he said, “I don’t make it a habit of looking into the stands and reading signs. If I did, I don’t think I would have thought they were experts to make that decision.”

That, for Manning, is what trash talk sounds like.

For the fifth time this season the Giants came from behind to snatch a victory. After Big Blue grabbed a 10-0 lead in the third quarter, the Patriots went ahead 13-10 and from then on it was a race to see which quarterback would be the last one with the ball.

Because it was Manning who had the final grasp of the pigskin, the visitor’s locker room was a relieved but mentally exhausted bunch. Forget about going 6-2 and seizing command of the NFC East; these Giants looked as if they had just ducked and dodged a silver bullet.

Justin Tuck, the N.Y. defensive end, said of Brady: “He’s probably the best quarterback in the league in his house.” This, after the Giants’ defense pressured Brady for much of the afternoon, sacking him twice and forcing two interceptions to go with the Patriots’ pair of fumbles.

Osi Umenyiora, another defensive end who felt relieved to escape, said, “That was a great football team we just beat.”

Brilliant minds across the land had predicted a sizzling shootout. Of course it would be, we declared, because this was Brady going against a defense that still hadn’t perfected the art of tackling and Manning taking on a defense that had bottomed out one week earlier.

Brilliant minds can sometimes be idiots, needing to guzzle energy drinks and a shot of espresso to slog through the first 30 minutes. It was a scoreless first half, the teams leaving the field with a soccer-like 0-0 tie (Yes, scoreless and 0-0 tie are redundant but the strangeness and ugliness of that first half needs to be hammered down.)

That they combined to score 44 points in the second half erased the awfulness that came before it. Manning would go on to complete 20 of 39 passes for 250 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Brady went 28-for-49 for 342 yards, two TDs and plenty of his usual late-in-the game magic out of the shotgun.

Brady spent much of the day slipping away from a fierce Giants rush, his throws often trickling through his receivers’ fingers. It took an odd late penalty on New York to spin what felt like would be the winning drive.

The Giants had gone ahead 17-13, with Mario Manningham leaping high in the deep left corner to grab a 10-yard TD pass from Manning. But a flag was tossed on Manningham for unsportsmanlike conduct during the post-TD glow, his celebration costing the Giants 15 yards on the kickoff.

“Yeah, I feel like they were looking for a reason to throw a flag. I gave them a reason,” said Manningham, insisting he “just talked” to the Patriots’ beaten cornerbacks but didn’t rub it in.

Whatever it was, the dumbest thing in football is to give Brady free extra yardage as time ticks down. Along with his three Super Bowl rings, he has 32 fourth-quarter, game-winning performances, and there he went, boom boom boom boom, finally hitting Gronkowski with a low bullet to go ahead, 20-17, just 1:36 left.

The crowd was dizzy, sure the New England defense could hold the Giants even after that Pittsburgh debacle. On the visitors’ sideline, Tuck was sure he was about to throw up on himself, not because he doubted his offense but because he was sick from letting Brady do what he does best.

Then here came Manning, poised against the pressure, dodging blitzes and directing traffic. He found Victor Cruz on a daring pass up the gut and hit Ballard on a gutsy throw down middle for a 28-yard gain that caused the Giants to straighten their spines, because this was exactly what elite QBs do.

“It kind of inspired us. We knew we weren’t coming out of there with a tie,” Cruz said. “We weren’t taking no for an answer.”

With 35 seconds left and the signs fluttering and everyone agog, Manning at New England’s 21-yard line looked again for Cruz but his feet were tied up with NE safety Sergio Brown. It was a glorified throwaway—the Giants were mixed up on their routes—but luck was on their side: A flag was thrown, pass interference called, a costly penalty that placed the ball at the 1 with 30 seconds left. The Pats’ maligned defense put up a fight at the goal line, but after two plays Manning found Ballard in the left corner of the end zone.

Now we know what it sounds like when some 68,000 jaws simultaneously drop.

“Quiet. Stunned,” said Ballard, describing a mood unfamiliar in these parts.

He was still at Ohio State the last time the Giants did this to the Patriots. He picked a fine time for his best professional game—67 yards, a key catch over the middle and the TD that caused a mass outbreak of silence—not that there’s a heavy resume. Signed by the Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2010, Ballard has flipped between the practice squad and the varsity. He has the manners of a Midwesterner–pish-posh?–and the toughness of a New Yorker.

After witnessing up close this dramatic clash, Ballard came away with this thought: “Eli’s a great quarterback. He’s one of the best in the game.”

Tuck went even further, saying Manning’s “playing his best ball in seven years," better even than the Super Bowl year. Go ask the people with the signs, he said, what they think of the Giants’ quarterback now.

“They might not tell you, but to quote one of our captains, ‘You can’t spell "elite" without Eli,’ ” Tuck said, with a grin nearly as wide as the one he flashed four seasons ago.